2003 Admiral's Cup - Another Good Day For Australia

Another safe performance by the Australian team has kept them at the top of the Admiral's Cup leaderboard, with their big boat Wild Oats taking second place in the IRC big boat class while Aftershock won the IMS 600 small boat class.

Mark Richards, the helmsman of Wild Oats, brought the boat home some 40 minutes ahead of closest rival Spain's Bribon Telefonica Movistar, but this was still close enough for the King of Spain's boat to beat the Australians by nearly three minutes on corrected time.

Despite a poor start by Colin Beashel and his crew on Aftershock, they managed to fight back on the first leg, and were in the lead at the first mark, they continued to build on their advantage until late in the race.

Beashel said, "at the first mark we felt that we were doing what we needed to be doing, but on the last upwind leg the tide gate turned against us, and they caught us up a bit, but the crew worked really hard, and we got away with it."

With the Spanish team, representing the Real Club Nautico San Genjo, taking first place in the big boats, and banking a third in the small boat class, the Australian team from the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club, have stretched their lead in the series by one point, to hold a six point advantage.

Eddie Warden Owen, tactician on Bribon Telefonica Movistar said with some relief, "we thought we'd won it by a country mile until the end of the race, then weather conditions turned nasty on us as we were coming up to the finish, this race was very much dominated by the conditions, and that weather didn't help the Australians."

Mark Richards, at the helm of Wild Oats was full of praise for his crew, "it was just one of those races, a lot of different wind conditions, a lot of sail changes, the crew did a great job. The boat is sensational, it just glides along, if you work hard it gives you results".

It was a long and tedious day on the water for the crews, sailing under a leaden grey sky, that spilt over onto them from time to time, driven by an unexciting wind that fluctuated between 6 and 12 knots, and clocked from south east, through south, and on towards south west.

The Royal Southern Yacht Club boat Volvo for Life Team Tonic continued their good performance in the big boat fleet, scoring a third place, but with more ordinary performances from their team mate, Dickies Yacht Sales, they are unlikely to feature in the overall results.

Estrella Galicia Dos, of the second Spanish team, representing the Real Club Nautico Vigo, had their first top three result today - taking second place in the small boat class.

With the race running into the evening, teams have until 2211hrs tonight to lodge any protest from this race - the International Jury has announced that it will schedule any protests after racing is finished tomorrow (Thursday)

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